Newsletters and Legal Alerts

In addition to being unaware of the growing menace, many companies do not have the appropriate insurance coverages in place to deal with a cyber breach. It is estimated that only less than half have any coverage at all (Insurance Journal Nov. 6, 2015). In fact, insurance experts have characterized the cyberinsurance marketplace as the “Wild Wild West”. Policies differ, policies from the same carrier differ, and the policies differ year to year. Trusted counsel and insurance experts should scrutinize if cyber attacks are covered and what services are paid for by the policy. Just because it happens online and it’s connected with a computer does not mean that it’s covered by what an insurer would consider a cyber –policy. It depends on the terms of the policy and not the mere buzz words of cyber or privacy liability insurance. There also may be exclusions dealing with the failure by the insured to implement requisite risk controls and procedures on a continual basis.

When a computer security breach occurs how should it be handled with customers and clients? Is there immediate public disclosure, or is there first a careful investigation and scrutiny of what occurred and what data was compromised? The proper strategy must be developed preemptively along with related training to instruct employees how to handle the issue. The most forward thinking businesses go a step further and conduct training simulations with employees to simulate cyber attacks and data security breaches.

In 2015 alone, cyber experts indicate that losses due to cyber crime exceeded $400 billion dollars worldwide. Attacks were not limited to the huge retailers, medical providers, financial groups or shipping ports; in fact many hackers don’t know the company they have breached until after they have gained access. Anyone who has records of personal information is subject to risk.

When all progresses as expected, the transition of your business to the next generation can be a smooth process with minimal anxiety. Unfortunately, many family-owned businesses operate under the assumption that ownership and control will pass to a spouse or the next generation based on internal family discussion and understanding. As a consequence, many organizations fail to take the necessary legal steps for the proper transfer of the business interest upon the unexpected event.

Does your business hire labor through staffing agencies or subcontractors? Do you share workers with another company? If so, new interpretive guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage & Hour Division suggests you should pay careful attention to those shared workers and their hours, as your business could be responsible for more of their wages than you might expect.

More than ever, patients are requesting to record conversations with their health care providers. Unfortunately, there has also been an alarming number of medical malpractice cases filed where patients have secretly recorded their doctors and nurses and have effectively elicited detrimental comments made in the spirit of disclosure and with the sense, from the physician’s perspective, that the conversations were private.

The answer to the question of coverage for defective workmanship depends upon the location where the work is being performed and specifically which state law is applied to the coverage question. While the majority of the states maintain a position that defective workmanship is not covered because it is not an “occurrence,” there appears to be a growing number of states that embrace the position that there are some circumstances, particularly when the defective work is performed by subcontractors, that the defective workmanship can be covered.

On January 4, 2016 a federal judge in Seattle vacated a $21.5 million verdict to a man injured by a closing cruise ship door in 2011. The verdict was vacated because the plaintiff, James Hausman, deleted e-mails that were requested by the defendant, Holland America, during discovery. Destroying or spoliating the evidence can result in extreme sanctions for the attorneys and reversed decisions for winning parties.

Acting at the direction of President Obama to update Federal wage and hour regulations, the Department Of Labor (“DOL”) has proposed new rules governing overtime exemptions for so-called “white collar” employees. The DOL has the legal authority to make and enforce these changes independently; no Congressional review or approval is needed. Once the new rules take effect in 2016, they will significantly increase employees’ overtime earnings and the associated payroll expense to businesses.

One of the main reasons business owners form an LLC or incorporate is to shield themselves from personal liability for company debts. However, if a litigious claimant convinces a court that the owner is merely the alter ego of the company, the owner of a corporation or LLC can be held personally liable for company debts.

Unlawful handbook provisions can trigger unfair labor practice charges, which in turn can result in awards of back-wages, reinstatement, injunctive relief, fines, and other penalties. The NLRB has invalidated a number of workplace rules it perceived to be overly broad, including policies regulating social media, use of company e-mail, internet, and electronic communication systems, confidentiality, codes of conduct, and at-will employment acknowledgements.Read more: June 2015 Legal Update

Within the last two weeks, three major recalls have taken place by manufacturers of popular food products. Initially, Blue Bell ice cream imposed a recall as a result of eight cases of Listeria in Texas. This was followed by a recall by Sabra as a result of an inspection of hummus in a Kroger market in Port Huron, Michigan, which revealed potential for Listeria.

When I have the opportunity to sit down with an individual who is looking to buy a business, I am often struck by the earnest surprise shown by the prospective buyer when I go over what items we should request from the seller in determining whether or not to buy the business.

The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) through the Secretary of Labor, Thomas E Perez, issued a news release on February 23, 2015. In it, the DOL announced a rule change to the FMLA in keeping with the US Supreme Court’s decision in Windsor.

After years of growing the business into a profitable organization, business owners often face the problem of retaining talented employees to take their business to the next level. In order to resolve this issue, an attractive option to business owners is to incentivize their employees with equity in the company. By giving the employee an ownership interest, the employee feels tied to the success of the business and will, in theory, work harder and stay at the company.

However, granting ownership in the company via capital interest creates an issue that the owner may not have intended.

Legal Tips for Collecting and Retaining Revenue

As an employer you have a duty to prevent and correct harassment in the workplace. The best way to do this is by creating an effective anti-harassment policy, and a solid method for resolving harassment complaints.

Rendigs represents many contractors and small businesses on all sorts of matters, but certainly disputes about money come up more frequently than anything else. Either our clients do not believe they owe money to a claimant or someone owes them money. Of course, the actual disputes are always more complicated than I could describe in this article but we routinely counsel our clients to help make sure they get paid on every job and avoid claims for non-payment. Here are ten items to think about that might help you too.